


To Defy the Stars

by Pookaseraph



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Angst with a Happy Ending, Chosen King!Lunafreya, F/M, Fate-Swap AU, Gen, M/M, Oracle!Noctis, The Six are a bag of dicks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-12
Updated: 2017-01-12
Packaged: 2018-09-17 02:37:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9300377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pookaseraph/pseuds/Pookaseraph
Summary: Noctis received the Blessing of Bahamut when he was two; Lunafreya was Chosen by the Crystal when she was eight. The die is cast, their fates set in stone... the Revelation of Bahamut is at hand...But the people who love their Oracle and Chosen King will do anything in their power so that the Two do not go quietly into the night.





	

Ignis first met the Oracle of Lucis when he was six. His mother was slowly becoming more and more ill, and after a week of indecision, his father had finally resolved to make the long pilgrimage to Lucis. The Oracle sat in the midst of a huge stand of trees, taller than even the tall buildings of Lucis, he was a young man with a full beard and warm smile and understanding blue eyes. At his feet, a young boy was playing with blocks.

"M'lord," his father bowed, and Ignis followed suit. "My wife..."

The Oracle nodded and stood, holding out a hand, and Ignis's mother took it, and came to sit beside the Oracle, who smiled and pressed another hand atop hers.

"By the will of Bahamut, my power as Oracle has been passed to my son," he explained, and his voice was kind and strong, but Ignis was afraid... he already trusted this Oracle and... "Noct?"

The boy at the Oracle's feet looked up, and after a moment he rose into tiny little legs, a block still in hand as he touched his mother's leg. After a moment, the boy seemed to realize he still held a block and looked around, handing it to Ignis, which he took reflexively.

"Hi!" The boy said, his voice small and high.

"Hello..." Ignis answered. He looked at the block, it was blue like the boy's eyes.

"It's ok," the boy looked at him, eyes huge and Ignis couldn't help but trust those eyes, so he nodded and was rewarded with a tiny little smile.

Ignis watched the boy - Noct - climb up on his father's lap and then reached out with two hands to cup his mother's face. An inky blackness curled around his mother's throat and then his mother grabbed the boy's wrists squeezing hard enough that the boy was obviously in pain, but he kept touching his mother with gentle hands, and the inky dust was pulled from her and spun around the boy and didn't seem to touch him before it clawed at his chest.

Noct's reaction was instant, he let go of Ignis's mother and pressed his hand to his chest, off balanced on little legs, and Ignis rushed forward to help the Oracle catch his son from a fall.

"Hi..." The boy said again, this time looking down where Ignis helped hold him up.

"You already said that..." Ignis told him, which caused the old Oracle to chuckle.

"Oh..." He looked confused for a moment. "Down please?"

He was gently released by the Oracle and then he found his feet only to sit down in front of the blocks.

"Here," Ignis returned the block, and the boy took it, looking at it in confusion. "Thank you."

Huge blue eyes looked up at him. "Why?"

"For helping my mother."

"Oh..." The boy looked confused again, but nodded. "Providing succor or those touched by the Scourge is the duty of the Oracle."

Ignis blinked at the words, but nodded. "I can still thank you, right?"

"Play blocks with me?"

Ignis sat down next to Noct, and although it was clear the boy meant to play with him, he ended up just curling up next to Ignis, and then using his leg as a pillow before falling asleep. Confused, he looked up at the Oracle, and the man smiled down at him and nodded.

"Please forgive my son," he said, softly, and Ignis couldn't help but nod. "The healing takes a lot out of him."

Ignis spent an awkward moment wondering what he was supposed to be doing, he had a sleeping boy on his leg, and after a few moments he reached down and placed a hand on his shoulder, and then touched the boy's hair. It was soft, and the happy sigh he earned made him bold enough to gently scratch Noct's scalp, which seemed to make him sleep even more soundly.

The old Oracle, Regis, spoke with his mother softly, and he assured her that the Scourge had been driven from her body and she would soon begin to feel better. His father seemed more skeptical of Noct... Noctis's healing, but Ignis just knew that it was alright now. He could feel it.

A servant came to show his parents to a place where they could spend the evening, and that was when Regis came to stand over Ignis. "I can take him now."

Ignis looked down at the sleeping boy, and he couldn't bear to disturb him. "It's ok... he looks like he needs more sleep."

"He always does..." Regis sighed, and helped himself back to his seat, looking over at the two of them. "He's the youngest Oracle in the history of the title."

He would have to be, Ignis realized, he couldn't have been older than three or four. "Aren't you the Oracle? I thought... the old Oracle dies and..."

Regis shook his head. "No, oftentimes that is the case, but sometimes the mantle passes early."

"Why?" Ignis asked, forgetting himself for a moment. He was minor nobility, it was not his place to question the Oracle or talk to him with such casual familiarity...

"No one knows... it is the will of Bahamut, who first blessed the Lucian line with the power to heal. Perhaps he has the longest road to travel as an Oracle, so he must begin to walk it much sooner than most. His is surrounded by the Blessings of the Six..."

Ignis looked down at the sleepy boy that rested on his thigh.

"He likes you," Regis said, and Ignis's head snapped up in confusion. "The Oracle... sometimes finds it difficult to form more worldly ties. Although we can see the Scourge upon the body, we are also sometimes troubled by the natural darkness of the heart and soul."

Ignis didn't quite understand what Regis was saying, but he nodded. Noctis eventually woke, tiny little arms and legs getting him back on his feet and looking around before he saw Ignis and gifted him with the brightest of smiles.

"Thanks for playing with me," he said.

"It was my pleasure."

When it was time for his father and mother to depart for home, Noct came up to Ignis and touched his wrist and in a very small voice, so tiny that Ignis could barely hear he asked: "Would you stay with me?"

"For as long as you require," Ignis answered without hesitation.

*

Lunafreya grumbled in annoyance at Gladio from where he tapped his wooden practice sword against his shoulder, but she quickly regained her composure and drew the fine wooden practice sword from the floor where he'd knocked it.

"You're not this rough with Ravus," she accused her young retainer.

To her left, her older brother snorted. "How wrong you are, little sister. If anything, I think your Shield is too nice to you."

Although he was a year her junior, and almost five years her brother's junior, no one would could protest that Gladiolas Amicitia didn't know his way around a sword. His father, Clarus, was the Shield and closest adviser to her mother, Sylva, and Gladio had trained from a young age to match and surpass the Prince and Princess in martial talent. Where Luna and Ravus's hours were split between etiquette, protocol, manners, dancing, and music, Gladio's hours were naught but a constant pressure to hone his mind and body for fighting.

When it came to that aspect of her duties as Queen, she imagined that Gladio would have been far more suited, but as her mother always said: there is more to being a Queen than the sword.

"The Crystal chose you, little sister," Ravus said, snapping her back to the present. There was a hint of a whine there, it had been expected Ravus would be the Crystal's chosen, but her brother seemed to have taken being passed over with at least some small amount of grace. "He merely wishes to see you rise to the occasion."

"Something like that," Gladio answered, holding out his sword, and Luna steeled herself and came again.

The three of them rested on the floor of the training room after Gladio had gone another two rounds with her, and the same with Ravus, before finally fighting them both, and certainly shaming her brother when a eleven year old boy could hold his own against her brother's more developed and practiced sixteen.

"You're getting less tragic," Gladio said, laughing when Ravus gave him an annoyed look. "Hey, it's not my job to lie to you."

"No," Luna said, raising her head high. "But a polite lie now and again would not go amiss."

"Nah..." Gladio shrugged and leaned forward, looking to both of them. "Remember your training," he told them both. "The road to Lucis is long, and you won't be able to rest in secure shelter every night. Don't get yourself killed, Princess... I'd hate to have to get back to work on your brother."

Luna laughed again as Ravus reached out over her head and shoved Gladio in the side of his head, only for Gladio to bat his hand away just after. She stood, leaving the two of them to scrabble against each other, Ravus finally getting Gladio into a headlock and demanding the Shield yield. Instead the two of them ended up clattering to the ground and Luna snickered.

"Seriously," Gladio said, low enough that he probably thought Luna couldn't hear. "Look after her since I can't."

"She is the Chosen," Ravus answered. "Would that I could take that burden from her... but fate has no need for me."

"Come back, too, you doof."

Ravus did not make it back, not hale and whole, the blood he lost with his arm nearly killed him... Luna was quite aware she barely survived as well... when she woke, she was in a plumply pillowed bed in all black sheets, and when she tilted her head up she saw a young boy, about her age, with brown hair, spectacles, and brilliant green eyes. Beside him stood a woman with dark black hair down her back, pale and silent as snow.

"Ah," he said. He had an outlander accent, from deep into Tenebrae territory, but he offered her a faint smile and a bow to suit her station, and marking himself as a member of an aristocratic family with his level of deference. "Your Highness."

"M'Lord," she answered, since although she didn't know him, he was owed his due.

"Ignis Scientia," he said, a moment later. "I hope you will forgive the informality under the circumstances."

She chuckled at the formality of his informal apology, only to find the very action sent her into the deep and clawing grip of pain, and she gasped, only for him to fly to her side and press a soft hand to her shoulder.

"Please be at ease," he said, although it is clearly not a request. "I will summon His Grace so he might sit with you more."

"His... Grace?"

"Oh..." He again seemed to realize he'd left out something important. "His Grace, Noctis Lucis Caelum, Bahamut's Oracle and one hundred and fourteenth of his line... he much prefers to be called Noct, however."

"Noct..." She said the name, and gave a faint nod. "I will be at ease until you return, Lord Scientia."

"Ignis is fine, Your Highness."

"Then you must call me Luna."

He bowed again. "Luna." And then he departed, the silent woman with black hair trailing in his wake.

She always knew the Oracle was young, but the boy who visited her next was so unlike her image of what an Oracle might be that she almost mistook him for another servant. He was dressed in black pants and a black t-shirt, with two gloves that left his fingers free. In his hands he carried a delicate tray of dishes that he set down on her bedside.

"Hello," he said, with a voice as cheerful and bubbly as any young boy. "I'm Noct."

"Hello, Noct..."

With the help of the silent woman, Noct helped her to lay on her belly, and she was terrified by the fact she could barely feel her legs, or her toes, even when she touched them with her hands.

"Be at ease," he said, and for a moment she wondered if it was Ignis who mimicked the boy or vice versa, before she realized the innate calm and peace she felt from Ignis's words paled in comparison to what she felt in that moment. "Um... this is gonna hurt like a bitch."

She couldn't help it, she laughed, and the pain returned in violent gashes, and the boy, Noct, leaned in and hugged and held her until the laughter and pain subsided. After that it did, indeed, 'hurt like a bitch' when Noct carefully removed the bandages from her back and began to press medicine soaked compresses to the wound.

"The Scourge has already been purged from the wound," he said, his left hand holding her shoulder as his right teased at the edges of the wound. "The Marilith's venom eats away at the mind and is the cause of the numbness you feel. It has to be drawn out more slowly, and I'm only part done."

"I see..." She didn't, not really, but Noct talked in a matter of fact way that made her trust him. A healer who'd admit something would 'hurt like a bitch' was far more helpful than one who lied and said it wouldn't hurt.

After he finished cleaning the wound, he carefully began to dab on some sort of salve on her back. "Is this ok?" He asked.

"Why wouldn't it be?" She asked. He was the one doing the healing...

"I don't know..." He said, softly. "I don't like to be touched." The way he said it, it was clear that he didn't think of what he was doing as being touched, even as he continued to touch her back.

"It's fine," she assured him. "You're... good at this."

"Thanks." He finished with that ointment, and the silent woman handed a cloth to Noct and he cleaned off his hands before he dipped his fingers into another pot of goop he'd brought. "This... um... you know how I said it was going to hurt?"

"Yes?"

"Yeah..." He took a flat stick and offered it for her to bite, which she did. "That... um it'll help a little. Gentiana?" The boy asked, and the silent woman came to sit on the bed beside Luna and she offered her hand, the purpose obvious, and Luna clasped it.

As promised, the pain was excruciating. Noct started simply by touching slick fingers on her shoulders and yet it somehow felt as though she was cut in half again, and as he brushed his fingers down her back she felt as though he had grabbed her spine and ripped it from her body, her back rent open and ravaged. Her teeth bore down hard on the wood, and her hand squeezed Gentiana's for dear life.

The pain stopped when he took his hands away. "This... um... I'm pulling the poison out, but it doesn't want to let go."

She nodded, finding her face soaked in sweat, but Noct pushed his hands down again, ripping through her body and causing her to want to scream. She passed out sometime around the fourth pass, and didn't wake up until much later when she saw the door to the balcony of her room was open, and Noct was sitting, being fed gently by Ignis from what looked to be a bowl of soup.

"I'm not an invalid," the Oracle complained, for the first time since Luna met him he seemed like a sullen child and not the Messenger of the Six.

"Then you may feed yourself," Ignis answered, holding the spoon out, not to tease him, or keep it away, but clearly he had made his point when Noct's hand reached up and couldn't grab it despite the easy prey Ignis had made of it. "As I thought. You pushed too hard."

"Just enough," Noct answered.

"You were vomiting black bile for almost an hour," Ignis protested.

"Fine now."

"You are incorrigible."

"Yup!" A few moments later, Noct turned towards her, and obviously saw that she was awake. "Oh. How are you feeling?"

"Alright," she answered, she didn't need help to roll onto her side and look over to the two boys, at least, although her legs were still numb, she could at least feel them as faint tingles now.

"I'm glad." He then seemed to fuss at Ignis, and the man sighed and placed the soup down, lending one arm, and then two, to the effort of helping Noct to her bed. "The venom is gone now, so you can heal properly."

"Thank you..."

Noct shook his head. "Just feel better, that's all the thanks I need. Ignis brought soup."

Luna politely did not comment that _she_ was not receiving spoon feeding from a Lord of Tenebrae, as it was easy to see that although Ignis might have been her subject, she was not the one who held his fealty.

*

Noctis walked into the Hall of Prophecy, still picking at the dinner Ignis had prepared for him. It was a rice bowl, one of his favorites, but his appetite was not great so while it was delicious he still couldn't stomach it all at once.

Ignis was sitting in one of the many vestibules, usually where pilgrims or devotees would spend their time in prayer or contemplation of the Six or the Oracle or who knew what.

He ignored the soft murmurs of awe his presence caused, or more to say he waved with a gentle hand but didn't think on it more before he arrived at Ignis's side. The man had several books scattered out in front of him, and a pen and notebook at his side, folded open to the most recent of what seemed to be infinite pages of notes.

"More heresy today?" He asked softly.

Ignis snorted and then saw Noct's dinner. Noct tilted it so he could indeed see he was still eating it, and he even shoveled in another bite just so Ignis would stop worrying.

"Of a sort, histories today, the books of Nadir and Zenith..." Ignis sighed, removing his glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose. "Doesn't it trouble you?"

'It'... Nadir chapter 14... the chapter that spoke quite plainly of the blood of the Oracle anointing the Chosen King. Both of them knew that that blood would not be a few drops of offering. "Of course."

He'd grown older, at least, and perhaps a bit more at peace with his future. He had been the Oracle for almost fourteen years himself now... fifteen soon, and still hadn't reached his majority, but that meant he was fairly comfortable with the facts of the Prophecy. He was to be the Oracle of the Chosen King, Lunafreya, and that meant some very specific things, one of which was his death.

Noct placed his dinner down on the table, and he reached out a gloved hand, which Ignis took without a word, squeezing tight. "Is it the punishment for the Great Arrogance of the Accursed."

"That's hardly fair," Ignis protested, voice soft. The Line of Lucis was cursed to come to an end on the weight of the sins of Noct's forbearer: Ardyn Lucis Caelum, his sins preserved for all time, locked in the Crystal, imprisoned with Bahamut even as the ravaged husk of his soul continued to bleed more Scourge into the world.

"I know... but that is the cost of Awakening the Six to anoint the Chosen King." The cost of arrogance... "And... you know as well as I how few will miss an Oracle without the Scourge."

That urged the unspoken reaction Noct knew it would, Ignis's hand squeezing his hard. "Don't say that..."

"Fine... they would miss the Oracle," Noct agreed softly. "Not Noct..."

"I'll find _something_ ," Ignis answered, promised, swore, as he had since he had learned of Noct's predestined fate when he was twelve.

Noct helped, sometimes, as he was able, but it was Ignis who drove him to the outlying areas to visit those afflicted by the Scourge. Noct would spend hours healing, Ignis would spend those hours reading, and then cooking and tending to him in the evenings.

A few moments passed and he released Ignis's hand, reaching up to cup his jaw with his gentle fingers of both hands, taking on the natural pose he often did during healing. He leaned in, and Ignis waited, the two of their foreheads touched, there noses close, and Noct gave into the urge to run his fingers down along Ignis's neck and his collarbones before resting his palms against Ignis's chest.

" _I love you_ ," he whispered, always in the tongue of the Six, but Ignis had long ago learned to recognize those three words spoken from Noct's lips. It always thrilled Noct that he could say such things so brazenly, to a man most thought of as simply the driver and servant to the Oracle.

Ignis was the man who stood with him through everything...

"Tonight..." Noct said, his words held a question and a promise.

"I shall be by your side," Ignis promised, but he pulled away from Noct's touch before reaching up to give his wrist a soft squeeze. "Eat your dinner, you'll need the energy for everything I want to do to you."

"Promises, promises," Noct answered, but he picked up his dinner and headed back towards the stand of trees where his father was sitting.

Noct joined him, sitting down beside him and taking another bite of food.

"How's Ignis?"

"... He hopes for a different Salvation than that of the world," Noct answered, and after a moment he set his head down on his father's shoulder, and his father wrapped an arm around him.

"I've prayed for that since the day Lunafreya was Chosen by the Crystal... if anyone is stubborn enough to help you shape your destiny in the face of the Six, it's him."

"Sometimes... I wish I didn't feel..."

"You feel so much," his father answered. "And Ignis is... special to you."

Noct nodded.

"I want you to be happy, Noct, for as long as you can."

Noct wanted that too, he just sometimes worried about the cost of that happiness, and how he would hurt Ignis when it was inevitably his time to perform his final duties as Oracle.

*

Gladio frowned at the car, and Luna found it so amusing how her retainer and Shield never seemed to find the good in anything unexpected that happened. Behind her, her brother seemed less amused and more worried, but at least he did his worrying in silence anymore. He'd long since given up trying to dissuade her from her fate.

"Remind me again why we need a driver," Gladio grumbled.

"Because," Luna answered, nodding to the bags which he hoisted over his shoulders. "You are a terrible driver, and mother would rather I focus on the tasks before me. And... sword-sworn though you are, mother still wishes for me to have a Queensglaive by my side."

She knew that she might as well have slapped Gladio with the pain that caused. His own father was her mother's sword-sworn, and held most of the powers of the royal line, but Gladio was promised to be Luna's sword-sworn, and so he could not bind his powers to the old queen, nor could he yet bind himself to Luna until she'd fully ascended as queen.

In some ways, she deeply regretted that her own martial talents paled in comparison to Gladio's. He was limited by her own skill, and she was still coming to fully understand the scope of her attachment to the Crystal.

"Hello." She came up to the man who stood stoically by the back passenger's door, Queensglaive uniform well-fitted and showing off a handsome figure even if he had not shaved in a day.

"Your Highness." He opened the door for her, and she stepped into the doorway, brushing a hand along the frame of the window and taking a look at him from the side... still quite a figure...

"We should at least be properly introduced," she said, voice soft.

At first it seemed like he was going to refuse, before he finally gave her his name: "Nyx Ulric."

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Nyx Ulric," she answered.

He seemed to fumble with his own mind, torn in several directions, before he reached into his pocket and pulled out a hair comb, thrusting it towards her. The metal was probably true silver, but the gem set in it was occluded and too large to be anything but costume jewelry quality.

"My sister wouldn't stop talking about..." He shook his head, obviously feeling self-conscious about the whole thing. Luna could imagine it now: Nyx might have been only a few years older than her, at most, and a younger sister could have been barely out of her teens. She'd heard it many times, a guard or servant excited by the prospect of even being near her...

"Thank you." She reached out, taking the piece and brushing her fingers over it. "I will keep it with me always."

Nyx seemed about to protest, but soon realized the futility of it. Luna settled into the seat, and smiled over to Ravus where he slid into the seat beside her.

"Don't worry," Gladio said, clearly audible when he swung open the front passenger door. "My sister embarrasses the hell out of me too. At least you didn't have to deal with her breaking into the castle when she was six trying to offer to brush Luna's hair."

And, just like that, her two bodyguards were friends of a sort, or at least comrades in one aspect.

The four of them pulled into a rest area near twilight, and Gladio began the work of unpacking the tent and Luna set herself at the grill, looking over the supplies that had come with them from Tenebrae.

"Cooking for us, Highness?" Nyx asked, voice skeptical.

"Yes?" She answered. "When we require meat on a stick, Gladio is quite capable..."

"Don't forget his freeze-dried noodle obsession, little sister," Ravus called from where he was lugging one of the bags under his arm and another in his hand. 

It was a cumbersome prospect, but Ravus had learned to cope with the loss of his arm and the imbalance it naturally caused over the last decade. It offended him more when someone assumed he needed help, and Luna was pleased to see that Nyx was not fussing over her brother, trusting him to know his own strength and limitations.

"Of course," she turned back to Nyx. "And Cup Noodles. But if I want to eat anything that makes use of... flavor or spice or any sort of vegetable, I'm afraid I must fend for myself. You hail from Galahd, do you not?"

He looked startled. "Didn't know my accent was that pronounced."

"Not very," she answered, but she often thought she would be a poor Princess if she couldn't recognize the different ways of speaking from the thousands of scattered provinces of her kingdom. "I ask because my understanding is the food there is quite spicy."

"Yeah... lots of meat on a stick, though," he answered, smile wry, and she watched the way he glanced to Gladio and the two of them shared a nod of two men who were the sort to enjoy beer and meat.

Luna shook her head.

"Hey, it's not all bad," he said, and he came to stand just a touch too close for propriety as she looked through their supplies. "Saw some peas a half-click back, and we've got some anak... how about this: you cube and season the anak and chop some onion, I'll cook, and if it doesn't kill ya I'll take chow duty from here out?"

"That sounds wonderful," she answered, because although she liked to cook she couldn't deny she did like it when others cooked for her, as it reminded her of two boys who she'd seen so long ago, and the joy of a meal prepared with love... "I am your sous chef to command."

He snorted, and headed off into the dusk with twin daggers at his back, and for a moment she fretted, but although night was growing darker and earlier, there was still time before sundown.

The four of them ate almost an hour later, with a spicy pile of vegetables and meat all hers for the eating with delicious flat bread, and although slightly beneath her dignity - and a fact her mother would be appalled by - she pressed a finger to the bottom of the bowl to get the last streaks of sauce.

A half serving of the bread appeared before her, handed over from Nyx, and she took it and nodded her thanks.

"I'm sorry," she said a moment later, and he frowned in confusion. "I'm afraid you'll be taking cooking duty from here on."

"Hey, I offered."

Luna cleaned up after dinner, carefully stowing the more elaborate cook stove and preparation surface to make ready for sleep and a lighter breakfast. When she finished, she saw that Gladio had pulled out a book and was reading by the fire, his other hand pressed lightly to Ravus's chest where he laid, using Gladio's thigh as a pillow.

Nyx caught her gaze a few moments later, she she tilted her head in silent summons. The two of them made their own camp on the edge of the Haven, looking out over the dark to leave the two men with at least a small amount of privacy.

"Are they...?" Nyx's question died on his lips.

"I hope that doesn't offend you," Luna answered, her voice hard, because she would not just hope it didn't offend him, she demanded it didn't.

"Nah," he answered, with a casualness that could not have been feigned.

"I sometimes wish that Ravus was chosen to be King and not myself," she said, her voice very soft, saying words she couldn't say inside the city, and certainly not to her mother. "As my Shield... Gladio must swear himself to die for me, and although he would do it in a heartbeat I am not the one he would wish to die for."

Nyx said nothing, and Luna was beginning to suspect that was simply his way, enduring and not speaking rather than speak poorly. She liked it, it meant that a silence with him felt comfortable.

A few moments later she fished out the piece of jewelry that Nyx had given her, turning it over in her hands.

"You don't have to..."

With longer to reflect on it, it was easier to see the beauty of it, and the firelight brought out the better facets of the gem. "Oh... a cushion cut." She hadn't noted it at first.

"Still quartz."

She shrugged. "All of us are imperfect and occluded in our own ways."

"That's a pretty Princessy way to say something nice about a piece of costume jewelry," he answered, but it was clear she had hit a nerve of some sort.

"It is also a nice way to say the truth," she answered. "You may not believe it, Nyx Ulric, but I am capable of loving something imperfect for its imperfections."

"Yeah... uh..." He had nothing to say, and at least some of their silence became awkward, but it eased again. Nyx pulled out a dagger and a stone to hone it, and Luna allowed him the distraction.

The next day he worked wonders with carrots and chickatrice thighs, and he joined her when she washed up after. A small lock of her hair came undone as she worked over the soapy water, falling in her face.

She tried to blow it away, at least to keep it from coming dangerously close to the dish water, but Nyx just reached out and brushed a careful hand against her forehead before he fixed her hairpin just so.

Luna felt herself caught in a moment, her breath stuck in her throat, and her heart pounding at the unthinking action on his part. He thought better of it after, he was embarrassed, that much was clear, but her heart didn't stop hammering until he'd retreated to the other side of the Haven.

Although she felt guilty for robbing them of their time, she asserted her sisterly right to pester Ravus until he leaned in chuckled. "Thinking about your Glaive's... technique, Lunafreya?"

She smacked him on the chest and he laughed. "How did you know?"

"I think that's the first time I've seen you look at a man like that."

"Not..." Six she was embarrassed, and she hid her head in her hands before looking up to Ravus, no doubt flushing. "I meant... Gladio."

"... Oh." He glanced up to look at where Nyx was standing, looking at the stars and pretending for all the world that the three of them weren't there. He pressed his fingers to her wrist, no doubt feeling the thudding there. "Your heart hammering like that... that's lust," he told her. "If he melts your heart, that's love."

He left her to putter for a few more moments, before she finally came to stand beside Nyx for a few more moments. "Don't stay up all night," she told him. "I would hate for you to be so poorly rested you couldn't make my promised cinnamon oats."

"Of course, Your Highness."

Highness again... she sighed.

*

Ignis fretted, it was truly what he did best. He and Noct traveled along the long road to Gralea, the border of the country of Niflheim. They were not fond of the Oracle, or Tenebrae, as the Queensglaive and the armies of Tenebrae were largely able to curb their martial ambition, but it was still tense to be so close to the Empire and so relatively poorly armed.

His concern was not allayed when Princess Lunafreya arrived with a retinue of _three_.

"Oh! Noct!" Luna waved from across the little platform where they met, in the tiny city square that marked the edge of the Empire and the current place of slumber for the Glacian where she had last risen and halted Gralean aggression a little over a decade ago.

"Luna!" His Oracle dashed over to her, and pulled the woman into a tight hug. "You're so tall!" He laughed and cupped her cheeks in his hand and brought their foreheads together before she mimicked the gesture and then let him go. "I should have asked you to visit more."

"You grew so handsome," she said, and Ignis tamped down the jealousy he felt. The two of them were close, and it was only natural for her to notice that Noct had become a handsome young man. What little jealousy he felt, however, evaporated a moment later when she turned to face him over Noct's shoulder, looking him in the eye with a knowing smile. "Lord Scientia."

"Your Royal Highness." He bowed, and was soon met with his own hug, which was completely improper between two of their stations, but although they rarely spoke, they were still much closer than their stations might dictate. "A pleasure to see you in good health."

More hellos were exchanged, Ignis and Ravus sizing each other up, as they had not seen each other since the siblings had been injured, but unlike Luna and Noct they had not kept in touch.

The well-muscled of the two retainers, wearing little by way of clothing, and all the markers of membership in the Crownsguard, was introduced as Gladio. His position was unclear until Ignis later heard his family name: Amicitia. Lady Lunafreya's Shield.

Her other guard was less well-muscled, and far more dressed, wearing a uniform of the Queensglaive. He was introduced as Nyx Ulric, and seemed far more inclined to see Ignis and Noct as threats.

Noct and Luna both seemed to be oblivious to the undercurrents of tension between the two colliding forces, and Noct announced that the two of them were off to speak to the Glacian, and he gave his customary farewell: "Don't wait up!"

"I believe there is a suitable motel two blocks away," Ignis said, breaking the silence. "The Glacian is by all written accounts quite gentle and nurturing, this should not take more than a few hours, but the pair will doubtless be exhausted after."

"The Glacian?" Nyx asked. "Like... Shiva?"

"Yes," Ignis answered. "As I said, despite her affinities, I have always found her to be quite warm. I am more concerned for their location than the one they hold congress with. There is a reason His Grace selected the Glacian as Lady Lunafreya's first trial."

The four of them finally found their way to the hotel, and Ignis shifted through his belongings while Nyx and Gladio took turns staring a hole in the back of his head.

"Can you fight?" Gladio asked.

"No, they send the Oracle of the Six out into the world, alone, save for an incompetent driver," he answered. "I will not claim to be able to hold my own in single combat against someone of your training, but the Line of the Oracle does hold its own brand of magic that allow Noct and I to travel in safety."

Ignis considered the merits of straight broth for Noct, before deciding that he would doubtless need something filling despite his protests. Luna would no doubt be queasy at best after her trial...

"I cook for Her Highness," Nyx said, interrupting Ignis where he moved around the kitchen.

"And I cook for His Grace," Ignis answered, without the same level of possession and demand in his voice, but the tone would allow no argument. "I speak from experience when I recommend food that is light, warm, and filling. Luna will likely not tolerate something more adventurous after her Trial."

Now that Ignis had apparently 'stepped off', Nyx appeared to be more willing to suffer his presence, and he also unpacked his own set of food. Anak... one of Ignis's favorites when breaded and fried, but not appropriate for a tender stomach. He glanced over to Ignis's side of the kitchen. "You got more chickatrice?"

"Thigh or breast? Please keep the bones, I will be making a stock."

The thighs were exchanged, and neatly deboned, and deposited in a tall pot that was now apparently on loan for the task of making stock from Her Royal Highness's traveling kitchen.

"So what's the deal with this Trial?" Nyx asked, and Ignis nearly cut his finger as he diced carrots in surprise. It seemed that at least one of their band of three was ignorant of the future.

"It... you are aware of the Oracle's role in the relation between man and divine?"

"Gods talk, Oracle listens; Oracle talks, people listen."

"An apt enough summary for the purpose," Ignis responded. "The Lucian Line has been blessed throughout the years with the ability to heal and grant succor to those afflicted by the Scourge."

"The old Oracle healed my sister when she was a kid," Nyx answered, and Ignis nodded.

"The Tenebraen Line has been blessed with the might and power of the Crystal, a small portion of which I believe resides in you, as gifted by the Queen. That is the purpose and selection criteria for the Queensglaive, is it not?"

Nyx nodded.

"Both of these pieces together are required to permanently cleanse the star, balance day and night, and see the end of the daemons. The Oracle... gives of himself to wake the Six from their slumber, and the Six offer unto the Chosen King the Oracle's power."

Noct dies to wake the Six, and then Luna dies to bring both the Crystal and the Blessing of Bahamut to bear against the Scourge. And then... they are gone. Ignis closed his eyes against the idea.

"More simply: Six bless, Oracle receives; Oracle blesses, Chosen receives."

"So..." Ignis glanced over to see Nyx frowning. "Where does that leave the Oracle after he gives six parts of his power to... the Princess?"

Ignis's mouth hardened, and he looked back down at his food. Although he had not answered, it was clear that Nyx understood precisely what Ignis had not said.

"And you're ok with that?!"

"... No," he answered, softly. "Of course I am not... I have... thoughts... now that Noct... His Grace is together with Lady Luna, perhaps they can be spared..."

"Whoa... _they_? Do they _know_? Do Gladio and Ravus know?"

"Yes. I cannot speak for Gladio, but Ravus has hungered to be the Chosen King since his sister was Chosen. That hunger was not out of greed or avarice... Noctis and Luna discuss their fate at length." Ignis shook his head. "I believe for Noct his consolation is that he will share his death with someone he cares for."

Ignis took a deep breath, and then looked at the cutting board where Nyx had stopped his own dinner preparations.

"Finish your cooking," he said. "Nothing will be solved today, but please hope in tomorrow. Lady Luna's Ascension will not be complete for several months. Trust when I say I have no desire to see my Oracle die."

*

Nyx was having a damn hard time taking Ignis's word for it on the whole 'don't want Luna and the Oracle to die' front, at least to start. Anyone who could just go chopping up chickatrice carcasses while talking about a friend dying was more than a little fucked up in the head.

That doubt lasted the five hours it took whatever 'Blessing' was happening on ice to happen, and for the two fated whatevers to get back to the hotel.

While the Princess was a little strung out and tired, she mostly seemed... buzzed, happy and alive, at least for the moment. She gulped down chicken and rice soup he'd prepared and had almost flitted around the hotel room he three men of her retinue were sharing, before she crashed and burned like a shooting star.

Nyx returned to the other room, where Ignis and the Oracle were staying, he knocked, lightly, and entered when called. The Oracle was shivering, ice cold, and that was what Nyx expected a man who had faced the Glacian to look like. Ignis didn't have enough hands to keep the blankets piled on the Oracle and get him fed, and Nyx came over to help wrap the blankets while Ignis fed the Oracle.

"How are you feeling, love?" Ignis asked, and Nyx was slightly surprised, but he was more shocked at his own surprise. The dedication should have been obvious, but the affection...

"Cold," The Oracle answered. "Warm me up, Iggy?"

The man flushed from his cheeks down to his collar, and when he glanced up at Nyx the man just shrugged a 'whatever'. What did he care?

"Perhaps later," Ignis promised. "Eat now, you need your strength."

'Perhaps later' didn't come, the Oracle ate his soup and then crashed, shivering under more blankets than the room had.

"And that's... one of six?" Nyx asked as Ignis wordlessly cleaned up the kitchen.

"Yes. I-- had not anticipated..." Ignis shut his eyes, and Nyx could see the man was crying. "The Glacian is the gentlest of the Six, the most caring and most loving of man..."

"So... maybe this is stupid," Nyx said, because he was fairly certain that he was not a thinker. "But can't the two of them just..." He didn't know what he meant, so he clenched his hands together, fingers knitted together. "Ask Bahamut to..."

Ignis shook his head.

"A kid? Tenebraen Oracle?"

"The two lines have intermixed several times before," Ignis answered. "The Crystal never choses Bahamut's Oracle."

"Why would they bless these two lines to just... blow up millennia later?"

It was clear that Ignis at least knew something, the way he looked back to the Oracle with a sad look in his eyes said as much, but it was also just as clear he didn't want to say.

"Please? For your Oracle?"

"Playing dirty, I see," Ignis answered, but he did smile, slightly. "Two thousand years ago... Bahamut blessed the Line of Lucis with the ability to heal the sick. Noctis's several times great-grandfather was one of the first. He healed... but he drew the power of the daemons into himself, it was the worst sin, and he became The Accursed. Only by Ascending can Luna purge the taint of the Accursed to end the Scourge."

"So this Accursed's the big issue?" Nyx asked, hopefully. He could probably punch it at least a little...

"His presence is the sin of the Line of Lucis... and then the Tenebraen Kings were given the power of the Crystal, the heart of our world, whose power is needed to purge the world of the Accursed and the Scourge. Even now the Accursed slumbers in the soul of the Crystal waiting the Ascension of the True King."

"Just... throw 'em both in there," Nyx said, finally. "Cage match."

Ignis chuckled again.

"Two on one! No one said we have to give this guy fair odds."

"Noctis once tried to purge the soul of the Accursed in his youth... I think most Oracles try it at least once in their tenure."

Nyx nudged Ignis in the shoulder with a fist, surprised that he was actually fairly strong despite the bookish exterior. " _Two_ against one, did the two of them ever try together?"

"No... but Luna is not the Chosen King until she Ascends... and she cannot Ascend until she receives the Blessing of the Six, and she cannot receive _that_ without communing..."

"I get it, books, rules." Nyx took a deep breath, and then another, frantic now, trying to push the brain across from him and make it contort just the way he wanted. "Do you know why I originally got demoted to Princess Duty? I was ordered to fall back from a huge daemon push, everywhere, night nowhere near breaking, and I said: 'fuck that, I'm saving my friend'... and now he has a broken leg and I have Princess Duty, but we're both alive..."

"I will have to consider the particulars of a joining..." Ignis said. "It is all well and good to say to forget the rules, but even your rescue of your friend no doubt did not happen on the weight of unfounded powers you drew from thin air."

"Yeah... I mean... do you have a book or two about it?"

Ignis gave him a sad smile, heading over to one of the suitcases that he'd originally taken for some sort of vanity case. Ignis opened it, and handed Nyx a bound journal over an inch thick.

"The index is not as extensive as I would have liked, but we'll begin by searching for any known methods of channeling the Crystal independent of any additional blessing of the Six."

The book was hand-written, with neat page numbers written in the margins, and a robust index in the back. He didn't need to take bets whose handwriting it was that littered the pages. There were occasionally notes in the margins in another hand, whose was a mystery, but not for long.

_'I tried this already, Iggy... sorry'_

"How long have you...?" He didn't know if he had the right to ask, but he did anyway.

"I think I knew since the moment I met him... I was six," Ignis answered, obviously knowing exactly what he was being asked. "We've been together for four years. You and your Princess?" He asked.

"It's not like that."

A judgmental 'mmhmmm' followed.

"I only met her five weeks ago," Nyx admitted a moment later, "But..."

There was no judgement in the nod that Ignis gave him after that.

*

In the end... Ignis decided that the execution of Nyx's idiotic plan was almost as complex as the original concept of Six Trials.

"So... treason?" Ravus asked, obviously tongue in cheek, but at the same time the Ring of the Tenebraea was to be held by the crown ruler and no other.

"Borrowing," Nyx protested. "Maybe even with permission."

"To what end?"

Ignis answered. "So... the question becomes how to fulfill all facets of the prophecy without the death of the Chosen."

"What the fuck?" Gladio interrupted, standing and drawing his sword on Ignis, and Nyx stood dagger drawn to defend him.

"I see that settles that question..." Ignis said to himself, softly.

"Enough." Noct stood over all of them, legs still shaky, but he stood. "I do not want to die... but I am prepared to."

"Myself as well," Luna answered, joining him by his side. "Please listen to Ignis, and Noct and I will decide."

Ignis outlined his plan. The crowning of the Queen by Royal Arms, the Blessing of the Six fulfilled by Noct's presence, and the Anointing by the Crystal their joining by the Crystal's light.

It was agreed that in the absence of external pressure... they would try.

Their small convoy arrived at the outskirts of Tenebrae to see the tall spires of the Manor in flames...

"My word..."

The six of them piled out of their cars and watched for a stunned moment before sense seemed to return. Ravus drew his phone and Nyx did the same.

"Cor?" "Crowe?" "What the hell is going on?"

The conversations went too fast to follow, but Ignis did his best to keep up. Treason in the capital, at least two thirds of the Queensglaive outside of the walls, the people in the streets in disarray for no obvious reason, the Crownsguard in full force trying to keep things calm while also being subjected to stray violence for no reason.

"But why?" Luna asked, her face filled with confusion.

"No word," Ravus said, hanging up with 'Cor', whoever he was. "Cor says the rioters who they've been able to take in for questioning all report that the Queen has been possessed by a daemon."

"Is that possible?" Luna turned to Noct.

"Yes... if the taint of the Scourge fully enters the body..." He shook his head. "It's beyond the power of the Oracle to bring someone back from that much corruption."

Ignis was silent for a long moment. Bahamut had taken that part of his blessing from the Lucian Line after the Accursed. "Souls fully consumed can only be granted the succor of death, and that succor is denied the Accursed until the Ascension..."

"You'd have seen signs before," Noct assured her. "No one becomes consumed by the Scourge in a matter of days. Unless... the Scourge could be welcomed... but... I believe the Line of Tenebrae is immune to the Scourge."

Ignis nodded. "Are you still able to command the Queen's power?" He asked Nyx.

A few moments later, he warped across the campfire and clung to a nearby tree for a moment before landing on his feet.

"There's no way she's a daemon," Noctis continued. "The crystal wouldn't allow it..."

"We will form up with the Queensglaive," Ravus said, taking military command in the moment. "Cor does not believe their absence from the city is an accident, which means our best hope lies in rallying with them and bringing further order. It is possible they have turned traitor..."

"No," Nyx answered. "Crowe said they'd been ordered on maneuvers, that's... if it wasn't the Queen herself, there's only a few people who could order that."

The six of them rendezvoused with Crowe, a Queensglaive of fairly strong magical affinity, and as much as Ignis had come to know Nyx as something of an impulsive man, it was also clear that he was held in great esteem by most of the Queensglaive, and he fell into an easy command as soon as he arrived in their ranks.

"What do we know about our enemy?" Nyx asked.

The woman, Crowe, shook her head. "They're trying to create panic, who _they_ are isn't even clear. Imperials? Someone else?"

"The level of care that has gone into undermining the local populous speaks of a weak martial position," Ignis said a moment later.

"What Specs said," Nyx agreed. "The problem is there's got to be at least one or two people on the inside who are high up there... and I honestly don't like any of the options."

"Cor," Ravus suggested.

"Clarus," Gladio named his father, with obvious disgust and unhappiness on his tongue.

"Or Drautos," Nyx said, rounding out the list of people close enough to the Queen to make something like this happen. "Who did the orders come from?"

"Drautos," Crowe answered. "But that doesn't mean it's him, those orders could have come from Clarus, or even Cor with a casual word to the Queen..."

"I believe the death of the Queen may not be the ultimate objective," Ignis said a few moments later. "My understanding of the binding magic of the Queensglaive is that their power is granted via the Crystal, but the bond is directly tied to the Queen's life force."

"That is correct," Luna confirmed for him a moment later.

"Why send us out of the city if we were just going to become useless?" Crowe said, following Ignis's line of thinking. "Well... small comfort for that."

"The city is clouded in sickness," Noct said, finally coming back from his perch where he had been looking at the city. "A powerful darkness has been willingly brought into the city and floods into the hearts of men."

"Daemons?" Nyx asked.

Noct shook his head... "Everyone is made of both light and darkness, the Scourge latches onto the dark and makes it strong, just as the light pours into the Oracle or the Line of the Tenebraea... but there is a thick and murky line between daemon and human. The Oracle's duty is to pull the tested back to the light..."

"I apologize for his occasional lapse into chapter and verse," Ignis said, when he realized that most of the Queensglaive had no idea what Noctis was trying to say. "There will be many inside the city in need of the Oracle's healing, and I believe that will be a trial of hours if not days for him. Most simply put... Noct will need to wade into the dark unarmed in any physical sense."

"He needs protection," Nyx said, and nodded.

"You can't just..." Noct said, looking to Nyx in concern. "They're thralls to darkness, they deserve peace, but not the succor provided by the sword."

"Crowe..." Nyx frowned, but he seemed to be considering what to say. "Gather a team, nonlethal force only, protective barriers, the works. You defend the Oracle and Specs with everything you have."

She nodded. "You got it, Nyx."

"Let's go." He gestured towards the remaining members of the entourage, and Ignis watched them go.

Ignis came up to the woman, Crowe, she was lean and dark haired, and looked more waifish than a warrior, but Ignis was well-aware that those looks good be deceiving. "If a choice must be made, it is not a choice: you are to leave me and see to Noct."

She frowned, but after a few more moments she acknowledged the demand. "You any good in a fight?"

He shrugged. "Gentiana?"

A soft breeze ruffled his hair, quickly becoming cold, and wrapped him in winter's chill, but she came when called... a Messenger's promise to her Oracle, and presented the Trident with a casual hand, and Ignis took it, likely for the others, he appeared to pull it from thin air, but it mattered little to him in the moment.

"At your command, Lady Crowe."

*

Nyx ran, not an unfamiliar sensation, but he ran at someone's side, his Princess, and her closest allies. As they grew closer to the palace proper, it became clear that whatever they would face, it was no doubt terrible. There were guards everywhere, dead, some rent apart, viscera splattered against the walls and floors.

Without knowing why, they made their path towards the Throne Room, it seemed as though that would be the place, the root of this trouble.

When they arrived, a man Nyx had never seen sat on the Throne, garbed in a loose black cloak with the sort of genial smile that immediately set him on edge.

"The Chosen King," he said, face changed, and began to drip black from his eyes. "And yet... it seems I am premature, faced with barely a Chosen Princess... how disappointing."

"Where is Her Majesty?" Nyx demanded.

"Oh...?" The man creature leaned forward, showing pointed teeth and a fetid grin. "Worried about how little your Princess needs a cook without any of the toys gained from suckling at Her Majesty's teat?"

Nyx bristled, throwing a dagger at the creature, piercing his heart and warping hard to drive it home.

"How cute."

He then reached up and grabbed Nyx by his throat, pushing him with a casual flick of the hand, sending Nyx hurling back fast enough he needed to warp just to break his fall.

Gladio ran to him, cuffing him on the back of his head before helping Nyx to his feet. "Dumbass."

The black that oozed from the wound seemed to fester and bubble, but then it closed.

"Is that...?" Nyx frowned.

"As for Her Majesty... she has taken my place at Bahamut's side. Never fear, he is a gracious and understanding host..."

He then gestured behind him to where Nyx knew the Crystal slumbered. He had never seen it, but it was a dull presence in his mind. A faint line of light came from the creature's back, tying it to... the Crystal.

"The Accursed."

"Ardyn..." Luna said. "Ardyn Lucis Caelum..."

The name, if anything, seemed to anger him far more than the title, and he snarled, his already unhuman visage becoming more perverted.

"Nyx... fetch Noctis," Luna said.

"Highness..." He was being asked to run, to leave behind people he had come to care for... and one in particular...

"Please, only the combined might of the Oracle and Chosen King can stand against the Accursed."

He reached out a hand, wishing he could say anything else, but instead he touched her hair, just for a moment, and the tiny nod in response was all he needed to know he hadn't needed to say anything at all.

Nyx ran.

 _"Oh that's an appealing thought... poor Princess and her valiant Knight."_ The Accursed's voice rung in his head... Ardyn...

"Whatever," he answered in response. "Laugh. Make it something stupid. That was me two months ago. You aren't going to know what hit you, you Son of Bitch."

_"Did she melt your heart? I assure you mine is already quite gone... perhaps I can show her yours... all tender and bleeding..."_

Nyx flung his dagger jumping toward it only to stumble and stagger... rolling to avoid breaking an arm when he thudded to the ground a story below.

_"Oopsies..."_

The casual ease of his warping was gone... and he was left trying to remember how to even navigate the streets.

It took him too long... far too long... but he eventually found Crowe. She stood in a square, shoulder to shoulder with three other Glaives. It was clear that whatever Ardyn had done had affected them to, as they were being battered by dozens of people black in their eyes or streaking their faces but had none of the Queen's magic to bring to bear in response.

At their center, the Oracle knelt over one of the fallen, light flaring in his hands as darkness swirled around him.

The true surprise came when he saw Ignis a few paces out of their square, standing face to face with a creature... some sort of daemon armor, with only a trident in hand. The armor was holding a greatsword that it swung with a casual ease.

Ignis was far more expert with the polearm than Nyx would have guessed, but it was clear he was outmatched in strength several times over.

"The Hero arrives at last..." The armor said, and Nyx frowned at the name. It was a stupid joke among the Drautos and Glaives that he couldn't go a day without idiotic heroics...

The Glaives... and their leader, one of the few men who could have forced the Queensglaives out of the city on his orders...

"Drautos!"

The daemon armor threw its head back and laughed. "If you insist..." The armor over its face melted away, leaving a dark wreath around Nyx's mentor's face. "I much prefer Glauca... he's given me so much, after all..."

The armor itself...? "You're sick. But I'm told the only succor for you is the embrace of death."

"You're welcome to try." He threw his arms wide.

"Crowe, get the Oracle to the Princess," he shouted over his shoulder. "The Accursed's been released from Bahamut's grasp."

"No..." Noct looked up from his healing, eyes wide. "I..." He stood though, running up to where Ignis stood, trident again in his hand.

"Go, Noct." Ignis's mouth hardened and he came to stand at Nyx's side.

"Remember me..."

Ignis didn't respond until Noctis was well out if hearing range. "As if I could forget..."

"What do you hope to accomplish?" Glauca asked. "The Queen's magic will never return, this worm is barely a challenge, and you'll be even less of one..."

"Well... then I'll fight until the Scourge is driven from the star... and watch you realize how big a mistake you made," Nyx took up a defensive position, and Ignis came to stand beside him. "Careful, Specs."

"I'm afraid it should be you who is careful," Ignis responded. "Although I cannot deny I could use the help."

Unfortunately, it turned out Ignis was quite correct. While Nyx obviously had the more dedicated physical training, he was without most of his tricks, and the ones that he did have were well-studied by Drautos over the years. Nyx would dart in, only to receive a heavy backhand, a flash of a magic shield from Ignis barely enough to prevent the worst of the recoil, but often that was enough to provide an opening thrust for Ignis, and Drautos's parry would leave room for Nyx, only for his strike to cause his weapon to glow with a light that seemed to burn harder than any cut.

The two of them huddled for a moment, catching their breath. "That's... an Oracle thing?"

"Of course," Ignis answered, taking another deep breath. "It... is unlikely to hold out much longer. We need to push."

Nyx frowned before realizing that Ignis's powers were there because... of Noctis, and if Noctis died... it would just be the two of them, absolutely nothing to hold them against the daemon armor that wrapped around Nyx's former commander.

"Just blitz," Nyx said. "Drautos is a little weak on the left but..."

"That armor..." Ignis answered, understanding immediately.

The two of them rolled the opposite way from each other, converging on Drautos's flanks, the two of them fighting hard, pushing, trying to find even a single weakness in the man's defenses, and they worked well for two men who'd never fought at each other's side, but it wasn't nearly enough. Another flare and Nyx could feel the holy glow in his dagger, only for it to be snuffed out moments before it hit Drautos...

Ignis tried to shield them from the oncoming swing and nothing came...

Nyx couldn't imagine being calm in that moment, but the only indication in Ignis that anything had changed was his mouth setting in a straight line and he pushed forward again, completely heedless of how outmatched they were. Nyx couldn't do anything but follow.

Their fight was a chase now, cat and mouse with the mouse barely having the wits to run away. He and Ignis would regroup, try to lick their wounds only for Drautos to come after them, leaving a shattered stone of a building, or splintered trees.

Their retreat finished, nowhere to go... Ignis was on his knees, breathing harsh, Trident still in his hand, when Nyx felt his breath catch in his throat and time seemed to stand still. He wondered if he was dreaming... or delirious... or dead... because before him he saw Luna, blinding bright and wreathed in black flame, not sick like the Accursed... like... death... the natural embrace of death that came with life... and for a moment he thought he could see sloppy black hair in the flame... and Nyx realized whose power burned bright at her back.

"Our Chosen... both of you." She reached out and touched his face, her other hand touching Ignis's. "Go... Live for us."

Nyx felt the return of the Crystal in his mind in an instant, Ignis surging forward a moment before him, his Trident rippling with black flame, Nyx flicked his hand, dagger landing hard in Drautos's chest before he arrived to drive the other home, pulsing with white light. They held their own, they pushed him back, and the man daemon couldn't hope to land another blow against the two of them, both of them more than matching him, and then some...

What felt like hours later, Nyx felt the sun burn at his skin, the daemon armor corpse between them, Trident driven deep into the armor, splitting Nyx's former commander's chest almost in two, a dagger wedged deep in Drautos's throat.

He felt the power within him flicker, his heart stuttering in his chest as he realized what it must have meant.

"If we leave now," Ignis said... "You might be able to say goodbye."

"... Yeah." He closed his eyes to the sun. "I can't."

"Very well."

A few minutes later, the palace flared bright, light overtaking everything, destroying even the deepest shadow, bursting outwards it swept and burned across the land, leaving Ignis and Nyx sitting across from each other, the black-burnt armor peeled away to reveal putrid flesh through to Drautos's core.

Ignis stood, Nyx followed, and as they walked towards the palace Nyx saw the sleeping bodies of the hundreds of people who'd been infested with the Scourge. Ignis checked the first few, to find them still breathing, before he continued towards the palace.

The throne room was almost empty, but when they entered the scene was... a tangled confusion. The Queen dead on the steps to the dais, Clarus Amicitia's sword driven through her, the Shield beside her, head hung in deep mourning, Gladio and Ravus stood, obviously conflicted, next to Noct and Luna... the two of them were tangled together, leaning against each other, foreheads touching, fingers threaded through each other's hair, a strange, warped lovers embrace.

"They're breathing," Ravus announced, and that, more than anything spurred the two of them closer.

Ignis fell to the ground at Noct's side, pressing his fingers to his neck, and then his nose, Gladio joining him to do the same with his Princess.

"We... were afraid to separate them..." Ravus said, when Nyx came over to his side. "They... did that and then..."

"Luna, wreathed in black flame?" Nyx asked.

"You saw?" Ravus asked, before shaking his head in the way that said he felt a fool for even asking. "They... fought the Accursed... Ardyn. They never moved and yet..." Ravus shook his head. "He fell to the ground, and what looked to be... thousands of people poured out of his body and..." He shook his head. "I'm not sure I could describe it."

"We should get them to a bed," Ignis said a few moments later, waving to Nyx to come help. "They'll either recover or not. All that remains is to wait."

*

The week that followed the end of the Scourge left Ignis torn between the innate desire to be by Noct's side constantly and a desire to figure out what, exactly, the Oracle and Chosen King had done that circumvented all known logic and reason of the Prophecy.

The Chosen King had not even been crowned, although the last Queen had died. Clarus was still beside himself with horror and grief, and Ignis knew that Gladio was attempting to handle his family's troubles with delicacy he was poorly equipped to have. By Ravus's account, the killing had been one of mercy, as his mother had been all but consumed by the darkness that had shrouded Ardyn, but that did not change the fact that a Shield was sworn to protect his Queen, and Clarus had killed that Queen.

The Ring of the Tenebraea had been lost, or destroyed, depending on which of the men present he talked to; it had been on Lunafreya's hand, taken from her mother's still-warm body, and then shattered, melted, or merged into her skin.

"So heavy your thoughts," Gentiana said, introducing herself for the first time in a week. Ignis had not seen her since she had presented him with the Trident of the Oracle, and he watched her head over to where it rested and touch it. It shattered, disappearing to where Ignis knew not, as it always did when he was finished with it.

"What... _happened_?" Ignis did not often talk to Gentiana, the two of them both shared Noctis rather than existed as colleagues. "Wasn't the Accursed supposed to remain in Bahamut's hold?"

"My Mistress prevailed upon the Draconian to release the Accursed from his grasp."

Ignis gaped, unbecoming, but still he gaped. "Shiva?"

"I have no other," Gentiana responded, voice crisp and amused. "The Accursed's slumber in the Crystal named the place and time of the Revelation of Bahamut: The Chosen King, Six Anointed, would come before the Accursed within the Crystal and purge his soul of its taint by the Light of the Crystal, armed with the power of Providence."

"But Luna never received the Blessing of the Six, only... your Mistress."

"The Blessing of the Six... it does not exist."

Ignis didn't know what to say to that, he was frustrated and angry with the idea that Noctis might have been fighting for a lie. Gentiana had never said anything that might have implied that, nor had Noctis.

"There are Six, of course, and the Four and Twenty who serve them, but of the Six the Infernian was long cast out, and he would never offer a Blessing to a mortal. Even four of the Host would never treat with the Oracle."

"So... the Chosen King could never be truly Anointed?"

"In a manner of speaking." Gentiana came to his side, and sat in a chair close by, sending a shiver down his spine. "Allow me to tell a story."

Ignis waited.

"The Accursed... Ardyn, was not born Accursed, he was not born tainted, and he was not born in darkness, for many years he was favored of my Mistress. He was a man much like Noctis. He cared, and he stood next to the First King of Tenebrae, and he fought battles beside him to rid the world of the Scourge. That darkness might have been defeated two millennia ago, were it not for the Infernian who whispered in his ear both truth and a lie: 'those who had fallen to the Scourge could be saved, if only their soul was preserved'. In his youthful trust... he swallowed the Scourge whole from countless daemons, taking unto himself their darkness in the hope they could be saved."

Ignis was aware of parts of that story, although to have Gentiana speak of Ardyn 'The Accursed' in such glowing terms was strange. They had never spoken of the Prophecy before, not like this... "But that was wrong?"

"If left the Accursed too unclean for Paradise, unable to be granted the succor of death, and Bahamut in his rage took the Accursed unto the Crystal where he lived in a prison of his own mind for two thousand years..." Gentiana bowed her head. "But the great sin of the Lucian line was not Arrogance or Vanity, it was Hope. Hope that all lives, even the most unclean and filled with despair, could be saved. And so My Mistress beseeched the Draconian to allow that Hope to not be in vain, not the Hope of the Accursed, or the Hope of the Oracle or the Chosen King... or the Oracle's Chosen..." She reached out and touched Ignis's chin, just a soft touch, and unlike what he had expected, her flesh was warm.

They were silent, in the room together for several minutes while Ignis tried to understand exactly what Gentiana had said. He might have even had a few uncharitable thoughts towards Bahamut, and perhaps the rest of the Six for agreeing to this sham as well.

"So I was right?" He asked. "The Accursed was... punished for no reason? I found histories that called him a Healer, and a great man, even after an obvious attempt to brand him Heretic."

"He was the first Oracle," Gentiana answered. "What he did he did in ignorance and hope. So... Shiva beseeched Bahamut... who did ask for guidance from the Soul of the Star that was first occluded with darkness, that the burden of Providence might be shared between King and Oracle, just as it was when first the two were crowned... and the Soul demanded a Trial, that both King and Oracle prove that they could hold Providence and love for all in their hearts even in the deepest darkness... and thus was darkness set forth from the Crystal, entering into the hearts of all who harbored it so Oracle and King could be tested.

"Gifted with the Blessing of Bahamut and the full Light of the Crystal do the Two work as One to purge all Scourge from the Star..." Gentiana stood, and came to stand over where the pair were still tangled, no one willing to break the connection out of fear it was all that was keeping them alive. "Whether the waxing of Providence proves too much for two mortals to bear remains unseen."

Ignis sighed. "Gods, who understands them?"

"Not I," Gentiana said, laughing, and Ignis couldn't help but chuckle at the irony of the declaration, even if he knew it was a lie. "Shiva is the most gentle and loving of all the Six, and even after two millennia I still find myself confused by her. Putting the will of the Gods into words is... impossible in some ways, even what I explained doesn't begin to scratch the surface of the strange ripples that the Gods sense and we can only imagine. Two millennia ago, the Hydrean held tight the ear of the Draconian, and she did oft side with the Infernian in matters of mortal arrogance... and although the Draconian's will is unbending, two millennia has gentled him, allowing him to see the wisdom of the Glacian and Fulgurian."

"And Titan? The Archean?"

"Where do you think?" Gentiana asked.

"Steadfast as stone?" Ignis answered, only half serious.

"As ever, he supports man, but does not love them."

"So..." Ignis frowned, he looked at Noctis, still silent and barely breathing, and then to Luna, his twin matched pair, her all light, him all darkness, and then he turned back to Gentiana. "Where does that leave them?"

"Either they will fulfill their will bearing Providence... or the Light will be returned to the Crystal and the cycle will begin again, this time with two Arrogant Accursed... full of Light and bright in Hope, who did the wrong thing for the right reason."

After Gentiana left, Ignis traveled to the small shrine of the Six in the castle and looked up at the stained glass mural there and very much spoke his mind: "Fuck all of you."

He heard a laugh, and when he turned he found Nyx standing near the door. "That good, huh?"

"Being given incontrovertible proof that the Gods were more than willing to yank around mortals like puppet play things leaves me cranky," Ignis answered. "But I suppose you still feel it too? Your connection to the Crystal?"

He nodded. "As Ravus tells me: 'while it remains, there is hope'."

Ignis could at least agree with that, he felt the small trickle of magic that Luna had returned to him near the end, and the two of them headed out of the shrine, walking. "What I'm wondering, though... is if Noct fails and this all starts again, who would be the new Oracle?"

"Huh?" Nyx looked at him, frowning.

"There is a possibility the dark--"

Nyx waved his hand. "No, I just thought it was obvious."

"Obvious?" He hadn't a clue who Nyx was talking about.

"You?" Nyx said, sounding for all the world like Ignis was an idiot. "You've got the Trident, you've got the glitz and the bang..."

Ignis shook his head. "I will hardly be feeling charitable if this farce ends so poorly." But he supposed... if there was anyone in the world who understood the role of an Oracle beyond Noct and Regis, it was him. "I'd rather not think about that..."

It was difficult not to... as Ignis spent most of his days in silence with the comatose pair, and it was almost impossible to avoid the worry in his heart when Regis finally arrived from Lucis and came to join Ignis in his silent vigil.

"Is it terrible that this is already better than I expected for him?" Regis asked, pressing a soft hand to his son's forehead and then placing a kiss there. "You look as though you haven't slept in ages."

"I haven't," Ignis answered. "I can't help but worry..."

Regis nodded and came over to touch his shoulder, and the two of them sat together for a long minute where Regis reached out to hold Ignis's hand. "I know you have always tried to find a way for my son to see his destiny through without..."

"Yes... I hope... I hope it was enough..."

"I realize that perhaps I should have said this sooner... but for the joy you've brought Noctis over the years I can never thank you enough." Regis squeezed his hand, and Ignis couldn't help but squeeze back. He often worried that Regis only tolerated Ignis, that he was secretly concerned or disgusted by what he and Noct shared, but it was clear that Regis had only love and respect for him... 

"Thank you, Your Grace..."

"If... _when_ Noctis wakes, I hope you would consider dispensing with the formality to call me Father." Ignis flushed, because his love for Noct was most certainly not that of a brother... "I somehow doubt my son will suddenly want to provide me with a daughter by marriage... I'll certainly accept a son instead."

"Oh..." Ignis stared up at Regis, somehow shocked, just not quite believing the words he was saying, and yet he and Noct had made little secret of their relationship, and now it was clear that the words he spoke now were withheld out of kindness, not malice. How cruel would it have been to encourage the two of them to look towards a future without each other? "Thank you... Father."

"Now sleep," Regis told him. "Allow an old man to keep his vigil over his son."

Ignis stood, and bowed, not all formalities could be dispensed with so easily, but at least for today, one would be enough.

*

Nyx's own vigil of the Princess was far less intimate, and likely far more unsettling than the one he knew Ignis kept over Noct. There was something that felt wrong about sitting beside the Princess when not even her brother or her Shield spared as many hours. It wasn't that the men didn't love Luna, each of them made their vigils in their own times, but sometimes it felt wrong to place so much time into the vigil of a woman he'd known only a few months.

"Gladio did tell me you find the strangest places to keep your watch," Ravus interrupted Nyx's thoughts, looking up from the balcony of one of the upper guest bedrooms to see where Nyx's leg was dangling off an awning.

"Guard duty... have to be unobtrusive."

"Ah, yes... nothing quite so unobtrusive as a man dressed in the Queensglaive colors perched on the roof of the palace..." Ravus answered with obvious skepticism and amusement. "Come down."

Nyx hopped down to the balcony, and followed Ravus into the bedroom that Nyx had been occupying during the days he allowed himself free time away from his duties. Ravus stood, as he always did, clad in the white colors of Tenebrae, a cloak draped casually over the shoulder of his missing arm. He looked tired.

"Your Majesty."

He held up his hand. "It is Highness at best unless my sister passes... so I would much prefer Highness."

Nyx had his own moment of skepticism after that. The Glaives had always whispered that Ravus was jealous of his sister's position as chosen of the Crystal, but the more he got to know the man it was clear it was not jealousy, simply a wish that he could claim the mantle so that he could also have claimed the deadly fate.

"I wished to thank you for your service," Ravus said. "You were instrumental in allowing my sister a chance to thwart destiny. Whether she lives or dies, at least she fought." Even though he said that, Ravus was obviously choking on the words, not the thanks, that seemed honest and earnest enough, but at the idea that anything that might still lead to his sister dead was sufficient. "Any reward the Crown can offer is yours for the taking."

Nyx opened his mouth, but he knew his confusion must have been written on his face.

"Title? Territory? Position?" Ravus rattled off things that might have been jokes or might have been suggestions, but Nyx just frowned again.

"I mean... nah?" He shrugged. "For now all I want is to remain here."

"And if my sister dies?" Ravus prompted.

Nyx looked away, not wanting to face that potential truth, but he knew he had to. "I'll probably resign," he said. "Go back to Galahd, open the bar I keep promising Libertus we're going to open..." Maybe talk to his sister more, hug her... tell her that she was right and the Princess had been every bit the beautiful woman she'd imagined her to be.

"And if she lives?"

"Still need the Queensglaive then, don't you?" Nyx shrugged. He figured he'd be back with the Glaive. If the way they'd been acting of late was any indication, he was expected to replace Drautos as the commander, but he didn't particularly care to ask for that promotion. "I'll stick around."

Ravus waited, and Nyx watched him, the man seemed to be trying to figure him out, and Nyx just returned his level gaze and waited.

"If I might make a request?"

"You're the... Prince?" Nyx actually didn't know exactly how Ravus's title and position went, but plenty of people called him that. "Sure."

"Gladio is in desperate need of a great deal of alcohol, and likely noodles," Ravus said a few moments later. The words were almost enough to make Nyx laugh if it weren't for how serious Ravus sounded when he said them. "Unfortunately... the reason he needs that is because his father... dispensed with his duties as Shield in a manner that would be treason in most circumstances. I'm afraid, at the moment, my presence simply serves to remind him of his father's actions."

"I know a place, Highness," Nyx promised. "I got this."

It took more than a bit of cajoling, but Nyx did manage to convince the Princess's Shield to join him and Crowe and Libertus and the rest of them at a particularly mediocre ramen bar in one of the rattier parts of town.

As it turned out, Gladio was a great fan of crappy ramen and adequate beer, and getting plastered with more than a few Glaives was exactly what the man needed. Nyx even cheated just a bit, dragging the man home to his place to crash on the couch so that he wouldn't have to return home to the oppressive sadness that must have been there.

"Ravus hates me."

Nyx did the only thing a man in his position could do: he slapped Gladio on the back of the head. "Dumbass."

Gladio was far more drunk thank Nyx, so Nyx inevitably won the 'I'm going to smack you back' contest by leaving Gladio's immediate range.

"Sleep it off," Nyx said, throwing a blanket at Gladio's head. "Who do you think told me to take you on a booze tour of Tenebrae. You two are emotionally constipated dumbasses and you deserve each other."

Nyx was happy enough to ignore his own issues for the moment, and he stripped most of his clothes and pulled out his phone, considering whether or not his sister would be up at three in the morning. Probably not.

He texted her anyway, just a quick note that he was doing alright. He didn't send them often, but he knew she worried if he went on for longer than a month or so without a word.

His phone rang.

"Three in the morning, huh?" She asked.

"Shut it."

"What's got you up?"

He didn't even know how to answer that. "Just was out with some of the guys."

The other end of the phone was quiet for a long while. "I... they said on the news that Princess Lunafreya..."

"No word," he told her. "Still holding on, though."

"Is she as pretty in person?"

"... Prettier." The pictures never quite did her eyes justice, or showed the slight curve at her lip when she barely smiled, when she smiled and _meant_ it. "And... she likes curried peas."

"Nuh uh."

"Yup... used up most of my turmeric cooking for her." Ravus had always complained about the spice, but Luna just laughed at him and...

He had it bad...

"Hrm?" He realized he'd missed his sister's question.

"Do you want me to send more? For..."

"When she wakes up?" Nyx finished for her, with a confidence he didn't feel. "Yeah. I think she'd like that."

They talked about stupid things, just catching up, and Nyx found himself staring at the ceiling for a long time thinking about what Ravus had asked him earlier: anything the Crown could provide. It was a promise that seemed to be without limits, but all he wanted was for Luna to be well. She'd go back to Princess-ing, _Queen_ -ing, and he'd go back to being a Glaive, and maybe he would flirt with her a bit and maybe she would smile back and he'd probably be an idiot about it, but it would be simple, and fun. Who didn't want to flirt with a beautiful Queen?

It wouldn't mean anything, not really, the road was different than the palace, simple as that. The familiarity he had with Ravus, and even Gladio to some extent would fade, and he would be back roughly where he was if slightly more experienced and a bit brightened for coming to know his Princess better...

He figured he might try to keep in touch with Ignis. Beating the shit out of your daemon possessed former commander with a man definitely made you closer. Hell, if he wasn't certain Ignis had less than no interest in the posting, he'd almost think the man would have made a good Glaive in a different life.

Nyx woke Gladio soon after sunrise by tugging open the curtains of his tiny apartment and setting to work on coffee and cinnamon oats, as well as a glass of water for his hungover couch dweller.

"You're evil," Gladio said, but seemed to change his mind in the face of a glass of water and breakfast. "Dad's gonna be a mess for a long time..."

Nyx shoved a spoonful of breakfast into his mouth to avoid having to say anything in return.

"I get it, I'd be fucking wrecked if I'd done the same thing."

Nyx made the universal 'my mouth is full but I'm definitely listening' noise before taking another spoonful.

It took almost twenty minutes of circuitous spewing forth of a stream of consciousness ramble about the nature of duty and honor and doing the right thing before Gladio seemed to finally talk himself around to some semblance of equilibrium.

"Ravus probably feels like shit."

He'd long since given up on noises and feigning having his mouth full, so he just stayed silent.

"Just... push it aside for now, right? Most of us are going through a tough time, that just means I need to be there for him, help him keep his head."

Nyx nodded. "Sounds good."

The response earned him a playful smack to the side of his head. "I should get out of here, check on Ravus, make sure he's doing alright... actually visit Luna again too."

Gladio finally left, and Nyx did the dishes, stretched, and headed to the Queensglaive headquarters. His phone buzzed about an hour after he got there, just a one word text from Ravus: 'Thanks'. 

"Emotionally. Constipated. Dumbass..."

"You talking about yourself?" Crowe asked, coming up beside him to punch him in the shoulder. He chuckled.

"Probably." He gave her an answering jostle with his own shoulder.

"A lot of the guys are wondering where this leaves us," Crowe said, putting word to the thing that was no doubt on everyone's mind. "You're the only one who can still warp or use the Queen's magic... are we even useful anymore?"

"Just punch everyone in the shoulder or something. I'm not ready to deal with that shit this early in the morning."

"Got it. No philosophy before lunch." A few moments later she shrugged. "You look like shit, go back to watching over your Princess."

"Yeah, yeah..."

He waited until after lunch, at least.

*

Noctis woke.

That was the most miraculous thing to him, not where he was or who waited at his bedside or how sore he was... that Luna was there beside him, blue eyes tired but sparkling was a second miracle. Noct reached out to her and brushed a gentle hand against her brow.

"Noct?"

He turned to see his father sitting, haggard and tired, more grey that Noct remembered, but there.

"Hi..."

His voice was almost silent, just an exhalation without words, but his father must have heard, because he rose and leaned in and pressed a scratchy kiss to his forehead.

Noct's face must have shown questions in want of answers because his father leaned back to sit.

"The Accursed is gone, at peace finally. The Scourge defeated. The Revelation of Bahamut undone by the hands of the two Chosen..." His father chuckled. "The two of you saved the world."

Noct smiled, although that seemed like a lot of work for the moment.

"Let me call Gentiana and get the two of you washed up."

"Gentiana's still...?" Noct didn't know how to put his question into words. Without the Scourge there was no need for an Oracle to offer succor... and if he was not the Oracle he certainly didn't deserve loyal Messengers at his side...

"Just wake up for now," his father answered. "The rest can wait a little while."

His father scooped him up and carried him to a nearby bath, and Noct was far to frail to protest the childish treatment. So he let himself be scrubbed and bathed and dressed and helped to sit out on one of the dozens of patios where the sun was shining and he leaned up to smile at the sun.

"So calm now," Gentiana said, coming to stand by him. "Has your mind ever known such peace?"

He shook his head, wondering where Luna was only to realize his father had gone to help her to the balcony as well.

"How much remains of Providence?" She asked softly.

Noct wasn't certain. He remembered the last weeks as a blur, and he knew that it had been weeks, but it had also been a blink of the eye. "Some?"

She nodded. "When you are well... I am certain Bahamut will have tasks for you. The Oracle will be something new."

The tiny part of him that sometimes allowed him selfish thoughts wondered why he couldn't just rest... but the thought soon faded with the day.

A few minutes later, the door to the chamber opened and hasty footfalls came. When Noct turned he saw Ignis, face frantic, and Noct waved and watched Ignis's heart burst in relief and he came up to him, pressing a soft kiss to his lips that Noct happily returned.

"You look like shit," Noct said, knowing that however ragged Ignis looked, Noct no doubt was a dozen times worse.

It won him the desired laugh, and a soft kiss on the bridge of his nose.

Luna looked as tired as he felt, and part of him was quite happy his entourage numbered only three, as Luna's brother came to sit beside her, Gladio a silent shadow, but she was beset by dozens of retainers, servants, Crownsguard, and others who simply wanted to see her, if only for a moment.

Ravus allowed the intrusion for an hour or so, before shooing them all away so he might sit at his sister's side.

A troubled question buzzed in Luna's mind, that much was certain from the way she had gone from tired but happy, to tired... to a weariness that Noct didn't like to see on her face.

"Nyx?" She asked her brother, quietly, when they were finally almost alone.

"He seems to be under the impression he does not belong at your side," Ravus answered, but he tilted his head across the courtyard and Luna's gaze followed, as did Noct's, where even in the late afternoon sun he caught the sight of a man clad in dark colors who watched patiently from the nearby rooftop.

Noct smiled, realizing at least a part of what the man must have been feeling in that moment. He remembered when he'd started to become aware of his own growing affection for Ignis, and how much Ignis had feared saying anything to an untouchable Oracle even though he had fallen in love with Noct...

"If I might offer from my own extensive experience?" Noct offered.

Ignis snorted.

"Just kiss him."

Luna's teeth teased at her lip for a moment, uncertain, before she seemed to make up her mind and she turned to Ravus. "Would you help me go to his side?"

After some time, Ravus was able to find a wheelchair for her, and Gladio lifted her up and placed her in the chair, before the two men helped her head towards the door and towards where Nyx kept his silent vigil.

"You're hopeless," Ignis said, after they had left. "I can't deny it worked, however..."

"Did it?" Noct asked, voice teasing.

Ignis pressed a soft kiss to his temple and threaded their fingers together, Noct leaned against his shoulder and fought the urge to sleep. Instead he waited as Luna wheeled herself out to the balcony Nyx sat above, and he and Ignis waited as Nyx came down to stand beside her.

Luna held out a hand, Nyx took it and knelt, and after a brief moment of hesitation, Luna leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to her Glaive. The rest of the moment they didn't intrude upon, turning away, but the next day when he and Luna wandered the Tenebraen palace gardens to regain their strength, Nyx stood quietly by her side, just inside what might have been a respectful distance.

When it was finally time for Noct to depart, almost a month had passed, and the change in his longtime friend was obvious, her smiles always shone in her eyes, and her lip always had a gentle little quirk whenever she caught sight of Nyx in her periphery.

"Good choice," he said with a laugh as the two of them walked towards his car, arms hooked together, still leaning on each other just slightly for support.

Luna laughed, reaching out to ruffle Noct's hair. "He is quite handsome... and warm. You'll visit more?"

"When I am able," Noct promised. "There are still the sick, the infirm... and man still cries out to the Six for understanding and succor even without the Scourge. The herbalism and healing knowledge passed down by the Oracle's line is still needed more than ever."

"I do want to see you, Noct," Luna said. "A book delivered back and forth by a dog is hardly the same."

"I promise." Noct looked to where Ignis was giving his own farewells to Gladio and Nyx... "Iggy wouldn't let me get away with not visiting."

"Good."

After a few more minutes, Ignis came over to open the door for Noct, and he placed a hand atop Noct's for a long moment before he opened the door for Noct's father.

"Cya, Specs," Nyx called with a wave coming to stand just at Luna's shoulder.

Ignis waved in response before settling into the driver's seat.

Noctis watched as Luna turned her back, her hand coming to settle on Nyx's chest, and his own hand resting atop it, before the two of them climbed the steps to return to the Palace.

*

Three months later, as she sat in her study, Luna received a beautifully engraved letter tucked between the pages of the notebook she and Noct had passed between each other since childhood.

His Grace Regis Lucis Caelum CXIII  
Requests the honor of your presence  
At the marriage of his son

Noctis Lucis Caelum CXIV

to

Count Ignis Stupeo Scientia

She pulled out the small card to indicate her reply, neatly printed with her name

Lunafreya Nox Fleuret and ~~Nyx Ulric~~  
_(That boy you keep carrying on with out of wedlock)_  


Luna chuckled, tilting the reply card towards Nyx. He stood at the window, with casual, silent ease, but came up to her at her summons. He laughed in response, and with very little encouragement he was convinced to carry on with her out of wedlock against one of the long glass windows that overlooked the palace gardens as Luna dug possessive fingers into his back.

_~fin~_


End file.
